The Influence of the Christian Idea of Paradox on Democratic Though

Abstract

The current crisis of Western democracy is caused, at least in part, by the citizens’ ignorance regarding this political regime. Western democracies are indebted to four traditions, namely: ancient Greece, the Roman Republic, Judeo-Christian thought, and Modernity. This work focuses on democracy’s debt to the Christian idea of paradox. I begin this work by looking at the exchange between materialist philosopher, Slavoj Žižek, and radical orthodox, John Milbank, on whether Christianity is best understood in terms of Hegelian dialectics or rather as essentially paradoxical. Subscribing to Milbank’s thesis about the place of paradox in Christianity, I then study the term more deeply in the works of Henri de Lubac (one of Milbank’s main influences) and then apply it to democratic theory in order to show that, without a proper understanding of the place of «paradox» in democracy, it is difficult to see how powerful this political regime is in protecting human beings from autocracy, oppression and, eventually, tyranny.